What will you sacrifice in order to live your extraordinary passion?

The desire to live out one's passion always seems to come at a price. The stuff you'll have to give up is not just one but many things. Take a MD to-be for example, other than the sleepless nights and bulk of money he's throwing in just to complete the long and tedious road of education, he would have to endure the pressure coming from the society on various decisions he has to make in life.

Here is a young undergraduate at internship pondering about her passion. I am aspired to become a physician. Yesterday I stumbled upon an article,
10 things you need to give up to become a doctorhttp://www.doceatdoc.com/sacrifices-to-become-a-doctor/
Maybe it's easier said than done but I feel like I'm ready to give them all up except for #6. This dream this passion has been the greatest source of motivation for a slacker like me to work hard in college.

What's your passion?
Is there a limit to how much you would sacrifice for it?

Aug 9 2013:
Yuzhou, Everything we do in life involves loss and gain, rewards and consequences, and so forth. The desire to be a doctor is a conscience decision to dedicate your life to that pursuit. Once that decision is made it is no longer a sacrifice but accepted "bumps" in the road to achieve the goal.

Many go to a job each day to provide for their families when their hearts are wishing they could be jumping rope, their true passion. However, they know that jumping rope pay really sucks ... so they sacrifice and continue to do what is best for the common good of all involved.

The real question becomes (at least to me) what is the line between sacrifice and being selfish or self centered.

Take a second and look back at how many dreams your (all) parents were set aside or abandoned to make a better life for you and the family. In most families this generally happens to the Mother. She may have been a promising dancer, musician, painter, etc ... but for love she set all of that aside.

As for me .... I was to be King of the Universe but after my first born I advocated to be with the family. LOL.

My question is: is becoming an MD really your passion? I doubt that it is, forgive my arrogance.
To find your passion, one must truly live Authentically, Genuinely, with Integrity, without any thought of gain for one's self. Only then, can one be 100% invested in one's activity, with no ulterior motive. Ulterior motive is what you need to sacrifice. If becoming an MD is a MEANS to gaining something, then it will NEVER become your passion. That something will always be in the way of your passion, it will be your reason for doing it. Passion, has no reason behind, which is very difficult for us humans to understand. Passion is effortless, it is Love in Motion, Living itself. Your passion is nothing other than your every day life, and you will commit to it 100%. But we cannot see it because our Ego is always looking for a slice of the action. We all get paid for what we do in some measure, but if we put reward before our passion, is like putting the cart before the horse. With Passion, there is no cart or horse. But for this to happen, your heart must be pure, undivided, sincere. And Honesty never profited anyone, and so we are not interested in Passion but in Profit. So perhaps sacrifice any notion of profit if you want to find the passion in being an MD. And also, as it will be your main focus, everything else must fall in the background, and must be accepted without any complaint.

Aug 30 2013:
This is such an important question to consider on a regular basis. I'm an author, and I'm currently building a visionary multimedia empire with the intention of helping people transcend personal and cultural boundaries/limitations in order to live to their, and our, full potential. Definitely a huge undertaking, and there's no end to sacrifice.
Sacrifice is a little different in my eyes. Letting go of anything that is inhibiting personal progress is my definition, which is less emphatic that the "let go of something 'good' for you so something 'better' may enter," current definition used.
Some of the things that get in the way of personal progress aren't good for us at all. I've gone through several bouts of self-abnegation, and without fail, every time I let go of any concept of self, life flourishes for me. It's when I think I know what's going on, who I am, trying to preserve an identity that things get royally f'ed up.
The biggest thing I sacrifice in order to see the fulfillment of my vision is my concept of self. I'm not doing this for me, or creating this, any more than an instrument plays itself and creates music. I am an instrument, not the music, not the player.
This approach, coincidentally, allows a person to go with the natural flow so much easier.
As for becoming an MD, I'm not sure exactly how much this helps, but it's my story, so I hope it helps in some way. Cheers and good luck! Feel free to e-mail me anytime. I love to chat about things that actually matter (like this). :)

Sep 4 2013:
My passion is understanding human nature - objectively and subjectively - which means academically and artistically to me, in this context of my individual passion. I will take my years for Ph.Ds and my months for writing fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry and more, for my passion. I'll trade my time for eternal enjoyment of time.

What would I give up to understand how human's function, cognate and develop? Everything, granted I was able to pass down my knowledge to others.

The best sacrifices are selfless, entirely. Which is impossible, to me, as there is no such thing as true altruism, but the effort to not being selfish is what counts. More today than ever before, we are able to comprehend/study human nature to resolve theological and philosophical debates once-and-for-all. The effort to get us there is where a lot of the above selflessness is going to have to take place, on a low and high level of society/culture.

If you feel as though higher education is not worth the sacrifice of time, don't do it. You can still enjoy that subject and topic without pursuing degrees and gaining acknowledgements. It can be your passionate-hobby.

Passion should drive your decision-making to the extent you are fully aware of the consequences of having those types of passionate attitudes and efforts.

Example: Someone who wants to help people by being a doctor and curing them, but cannot do the medical school required due to overbearing requirements of time/money/stress, They can still volunteer paramedics, peace corp (medical), and much more. Will not be advanced surgery, but will still satisfy their desire to help others in the sense of direct contact and hands-on.

Aug 12 2013:
Wow, sounds a little like my calling. I recently left a six-figure job in the Pharmaceutical industry to return to school and become a Minister.

I have trouble with #6 too especially since I already have family, a husband and children who rely on me. My calling (passion) I'd from God which makes it a little easier. I'm not sure if you believe in God, but if you do and you earnestly go in Prayer, you will put to rest your worries because you will be moving forward in your own calling.

Aug 9 2013:
Hi,Dear yuzhou yang.When I was a child,my dream was to be a doctor.Because when I was a kid I was easy to get a cold.But everytime when my mom brought me to see doctors,they smiled to me and talked sth to my mom,I felt their caring and warm-hearted around.So I just said to myself:When I grown up,I would like to be such doctors to help those people when they needed.

Unfortunately I didn't get chance to fulfill my childhood's dream but fortunately I get chance to being a teacher.I find it is a suitable job for me.I like to be together with children.I enjoy being a learner while teach them.I try to share my knowledge and experience with them...

Sometimes I think it is good to have a diffrent angle to think of :I devote myself to be a good teacher,I don't think I sacrify anything but reward a lot from the job I am doing...all devotion I have done all what I like to do...

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Aug 8 2013:
As you said, thinking of something bad is also a sin. I can't prevent these thoughts from popping up cos they are faster than my next thought to hold them back:D I can merely stop myself from dwelling in these negative thoughts. It is very tough to be absolutely pure in the mind you're right. I think it's also a virtue to have the humility knowing that we human can't be perfect, from there I've accepted the idea that I can't purify myself, only God can, and my peace comes from knowing Him

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Aug 9 2013:
All religions teach people to be good that is great for the fundamental morals of humanity, but knowing God is a different story. We may have a different perspective on who God is, but I appreciate your sincerity.

Aug 7 2013:
well if it's your extraordinary passion, it shouldn't feel like a sacrifice, should it? If you feel like you're sacrificing, isn't that telling you your passion isn't as strong or satisfying as you tell yourself it is?

Aug 16 2013:
Well, again, yuzhou, if it feels like a sacrifice, maybe it's not your passsion? Curious, what are your motives for wanting to be a doctor, is it to help people, to make money, have prestige, invent a new cure?

My passion seems to be to interest people in milk. For the last five years, I've been living 95% on skim milk, every day I drink about two gallons of skim milk (like eight liters), and I eat maybe 5% other things. I started doing it because my eyes were bothering me and the eye doctors weren't doing that well solving it; so I started this diet, and it has really helped me. For one thing it's great for weight loss; and two, milk is easier for the body to handle because it is food in fluid form, it doesn't interfere with your body processes, or clog you up as much as solid food. I'm trying to get the nutrition and medical establishment to investigate this diet to see if it will help other people.

I also advocate for people having a few cows and producing some of their own milk. I myself don't do that because I don't have a wife, and I think it's very hard for a single man to own cows, for example, what if you are too tired at the end of the day to milk them, who milks them?

You might be interested, here is a chart that shows the different countries' milk use: http://chartsbin.com/view/1491. You can see Asia, which I guess includes your country, is low on milk use. I wonder why, someone told me it has to do with Buddhism.

Aug 7 2013:
Fear, more like something to overcome rather than 'sacrifice' yea?
That is true, and you reminded me of a video about stepping out of comfort zone
Though it's not of direct relevance to this convo but just to share with you, since fear usually comes from the uncertainty about what's outside of our comfort zone.